This month's full moon coincided with the celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival. According to Wikipedia, the Chinese have celebrated the harvest during the autumn full moon since the Shang dynasty. there are several wonderful ancient fables associated with the festival but my favorite association of the harvest moon is the consumption of "Mooncakes." I remember as a child, how giddily happy I would be at the sight of beautiful red square tins on the dining table and inside are sumptuous round soft-crusted sweet pastries filled with dense red bean or lotus seed paste mixed with yolks from salted duck eggs, dates and nuts. My sisters and I would devour the cakes to the last crumb and downed them with tea or ginger cider. It was celestial heaven! To commemorate this special Chinese holiday, we have Zhenzhen and Meili visiting Lilac Mae - I hope they brought with them some yummy mooncakes!
